Just read a book that says Halloween is a manifestation of evil (occult ergo evil). What do you think?

Answer 1

Halloween, like most of our other religious holidays, has some pagan beginnings and some Christian twists. It's been targeted the most because people are allowed to dress up as fantasy (evil) creatures and because kids really, really enjoy it.

Halloween is based on the Catholic holiday "All Soul's Day" or "All Hallow's Day" and the pagan harvest festival of Samhain. It's not the first holiday to be appropriated by the Christian church. Look at these others:

Christmas - placed in December during the Roman holiday of Saturnalia. The week long celebration the Romans were holding disguised the Christian get togethers. The birth of Christ actually happened during lambing season (March or October) because that was when shepherds watched their flocks by night.

Easter - always celebrated close to Passover for obvious reasons. Some of the symbols of Easter are very pagan including the rabbit and the egg (fertility symbols) Other symbols like the Easter lily were added later. The Christian church made a big deal out of Easter to draw attention away from Beltane, a spring fertility festival.

Some people want to impose their religion and their beliefs on others just to see if they can do it. Like I said, Halloween has been targeted the most because it's very visible and kids really enjoy it.

Answer 2

Halloween aka "All Hallow's Eve", or the night before we celebrate all the saints. Good ol' Charlemagne was kind enough to help Christianity get a good foothold into Western society by letting the newly converted not have to give up all the fun holidays from their older pagan religions. Since Halloween falls somewhere around the autumnal equinox, which was one of the old holidays, by attaching a new Christian holiday to the old pagan one, you get the best of both worlds. Opposites help define what something is, by showing what something is not. So it's not so much taht Halloween is about evil as it is that we need to merge the old style holidays with one another so you can still be a good Christian without giving all the fun bits of the old religion. Another example of this would be the Easter Bunny/Christ rises from the dead connection. Old style fertility festival meets new style rebirth festival (and also usurps that Passover thing). Here's something else to think about. How is it that we celebrate the birth of Jesus right around the same time as the pagans celebrate the winter solstice? If we were really going to try and celebrate Christ's birth in or near the time of year when he was born, then Christmas would show up in the spring - the sheep had just finished lambing, which doesn't happen in the dead of winter. Finally, as far as Halloween being a manifestation of evil, some people just don't like their myths without a good guy and a bad guy, so if Christianity is all about doing good, then you've got to have something to battle against. Think how boring all those stories would be without the bad guy - David would have nothing to slingshot at without Goliath. Dudley Do-right can't save Nell if there isn't Snidely Whiplash there to tie her to the train tracks.

Answer 3

Halloween is as corruption of "All Hallow's Eve" - basically the day before the feast of All Saints in the Christian Calendar. In pre-christian times, it was a pagan harvest/change of season or year festival without any particular occult overtones.

When the Christian church took over, it figured that instead of suppressing a party that everyone always looked forward to - it would need to scare people away from it - so rather than say "you've changed religion now, stop celebrating this feast", it said "This time of year is evil, if you go out and about on this night, you will be attacked by demons and dragged down to hell" - much more effective on the propaganda side.

So the idea of that time being "evil" was in essence a Christian invention to discourage pagan worship, but it happened so long ago that it has had ample time to evolve in people's consciousness and gain legends and traditions of its own.

Answer 4

The ancient Celts were the originators of Samhain, which is referred to as Halloween in the modern world. November 1 was dictated by the pope in 800 A.D. to be All Saints Day, in an attempt to replace the pagan holiday with a Christian holiday.
As a pagan, I celebrate Samhain as the start of the New Year. It is a day that the veil is thinnest between this world and the next, a day when we can more easily communicate with the dearly departed as well as give serious contemplation to the year ahead.
Anyone can say something is evil, based on their own experiences. I do not think the secular holiday of Halloween is evil, I think the people who use it to do harm to others are evil.

Answer 5

Corporations have taken the original meaning(s) of Halloween and have twisted it into their own commercial version that looks nothing like the original all in the name of selling us more stuff. This is definitely the case with Easter, Valentine's Day, Christmas... Maybe that's the true evil. :) Halloween is now about selling lots of candy, costumes, decorations, horror flicks, and pumpkins. I challenge you to find any child (and very few adults) that know the origins of Halloween.

Originally a pagan holiday, the Celts believed that on November 1, the barrier between the worlds of the living and dead would lift and that the ghosts of the dead would wander the earth. Though belived destructive, druids also believed that the ghosts could tell the future and provide them information about the year to come. As a celebration of this event, Celts would dress in costumes and light massive bonfires for protection.

Of course, the holiday through many hundreds of years has evolved and is celebrated differently around the world (Dia de los Muertos in Mexico, for instance). Because this is a religious holiday based in pagan belief and is not a Christian holiday, some Christians view the celebration of Halloween as blasphemous. Many Christian private schools do not allow children to dress up on Halloween and want nothing to do with the celebration.

Ironically, it is because of the original Halloween that we now celebrate All Saints Day and All Souls Day which most definitely are Christian holidays.

Answer 6

It was a pagan holiday or celtic celebration. It is the pagan New Year.

Samhain, pronounced sow-en and called Halloween today, is the ending of the Celtic year. The Celtic new year actually begins at sunset on October 31. This ritual is known as Ancestor Night or Feast of the Dead. Because the veil between the worlds is thinnest on this night, it was and is considered an excellent time for divinations. Feasts are made in remembrance of dead ancestors and as an affirmation of continuing life. A time for settling problems, throwing out old ideas and influences. This is either celebrated October 31, or the first Full Moon in Scorpio.


SAMHAIN - Cross-quarter day - October 31/ November 1


Death, the third of the Harvest holidays, the ending of the cycle, death, but with the hope of rebirth and the New Year.The traditional time for the annual slaughter to ensure food throughout the winter months. Take this time to remember departed ones. In some traditions the end of the year . The separation between this physical world and the spiritworld is thin. Halloween customs are a part of this element of death, the thin line at this cycle and remembering the dead and the hopes of rebirth. On this night Magick is more powerful .

Answer 7

First look up occult...This holiday is the beginning of a new year for some believers It is said to be the day in the year that the thin vail btween the worlds is the thinnest...Our relatives who have passed b4 us are said to be able to help us give us advice etc on this day...the lighted gourds and pumpkins were said to help them find their way back home at the end of this day... do you find any evil in this? It is a time to celebrate the bringing in of the last harvest and share foods and drink w/ family and friends sound evil 2 U?All things change 4 it is the nature of life many people still choose to honour their past relatives in this way and kids still go trick or treating and so it goes evil? not!

Answer 8

It was originally Samhain, a pagan holiday. Before Christianity, it was believed that October 31 was the day that the dead came closest to the living, so people tried to keep them from escaping into this world. One way was to leave treats on the doorsteps to keep them from acting mischeviously (in other words, trick or treat). Another was to go about with lanterns carved from turnips, which became pumpkins when they reached America. Finally, they lit bonfires to keep the darkness away, where the dead might lurk. So it wasn't a "manifestation of evil" so much as a day when people especially feared the dead, and the practices we have today are warped versions of how they tried to protect themselves.

Answer 9

Haloween's immediate roots are the Christian festival of All Hallow's Eve. This is a time to comemerate the spirits of the dead who are not prayed for at any other time of the year (e.g. Saint's days or aniversaries of deaths). Given the Catholic (and recently Anglican) understanding of the afterlife, praying for the souls of the dead is efficatious, and causing god to take pity on them for their sins. This festival is of course far from evil, and is merely an expression of Christian respect for the souls of the dead.
However, Haloween does trace its roots back to numerous pagan festivals. The idea of wearing masks is a north Germanic one, and is derived from a festival when people enacted the defeat of evil spirits by the protective gods at harvest time. Other pre-christian festivals from across Europe have made their contributions to Haloween as well. Whether these festivals, and consequently Haloween, are evil is a decision that should be made by the individual based on their personal religious convictions. Haloween is certainly not a part of Biblical Christianity, but can be legitimately incorporated into the lives and beliefs of most Christians.

Answer 10

Halloween is originated in Ireland as the pagan Celtic harvest festival.Irish and Scots immigrants brought older versions of thee tradition to North America in the 19th century.Halloween also called ALL SAINTS eve it was a religious festivities until it was appropriated by Cristian missionaries and given an christian interpretation.Mexico called it the DAY of THE DEAD its liminal times of the year when spiritual world can make contact with the physical world and when magic is most potent.